This invention relates in general to communication systems, and more specifically to a method for indicating a delinquent response to a message from a selective call device.
There are many types of communication systems in operation today (including two-way selective call systems) that provide message, data, and voice information. The communication subscriber units, e.g., two-way selective call devices or two-way subscriber devices, utilize sophisticated receiver/transmitter architectures and signaling formats that have been optimized to provide both high receiver sensitivities and excellent battery saving capabilities. With the proliferation of two-way selective call devices, users have become accustomed to and comfortable with using these two-way subscriber devices to transmit and request time critical information that can have, for example, enormous economical or other significant benefits to the users.
Currently, selective call devices have various types of alerts to indicate, e.g., the receipt of a message. Other types of alerts are: the xe2x80x9creminder alertxe2x80x9d which is used to indicate to the user that a received message has not been read, the xe2x80x9ccontent sensitive alertxe2x80x9d which is used to provide an indication to the user that certain keywords were found within a received message, and the xe2x80x9cmessage read alertxe2x80x9d which is used to indicate to the sender of a message that a message was read.
When a user of a two way subscriber device sends a message soliciting a response, a question, or a request to another user, the user has to remember: 1) that a message containing a question was sent, 2) who was the recipient of the message containing the question, and 3) whether a response was received from that recipient. This task becomes even more burdensome when a user sends numerous questions or requests to multiple devices. Under this condition, the user could easily forget that a response was never received, and in this fast paced world where information is critical for economical or other critical needs, the user who forgets that a response is delinquent or was never received, may be unable to execute on critical time sensitive events that could be of great significance to the user.
Therefore, what is needed, in a two-way device or selective call device, is a method for alerting or reminding a user that an answer or a response is delinquent to a question or a message that was previously sent soliciting a response.